Despite the ever increasing number of cancer therapies in general, and combination cancer therapies in particular, cancer is still the third most common cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular diseases and infectious/parasitic diseases; in absolute numbers, this corresponds to 7.6 million deaths (ca. 13% of all deaths) in any given year. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates deaths due to cancer to increase to 13.1 million by 2030, while the American Cancer Society expects over 1,685,210 new cancer cases diagnosed and 595,690 cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2016. A 2012 survey by McMillan Cancer Support in the U.K. has revealed that the median survival time of cancer patients overall has increased from 1 year to 6 years since the 1970s. However, for many cancers including esophageal-, stomach-, lung-, brain- and pancreatic cancer, median survival has barely improved, remaining less than one year.
These statistics illustrate the fact that cancer remains a critical health condition and that there is an urgent need for new anticancer drugs.